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    Hotel Silence
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    Hotel Silence
    Unavailable
    Hotel Silence
    Ebook223 pages3 hours

    Hotel Silence

    By Audur Ava Olafsdottir

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize, Hotel Silence is a delightful and heartwarming new novel from Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, a writer who “upends expectations” (New York Times). Told with grace, insight, and humor, this is the story of one man’s surprising mid-life adventure of self-discovery that leads him to find a new reason for being.

    Jónas Ebeneser is a handy DIY kind of man with a compulsion to fix things, but he can’t seem to fix his own life. On the cusp of turning fifty, divorced, adrift, he’s recently discovered he is not the biological father of his daughter, Gudrun Waterlily, and he has sunk into an existential crisis, losing all will to live. As he visits his senile mother in a nursing home, he secretly muses on how, when, and where to put himself out of his misery.

    To prevent his only daughter from discovering his body, Jónas decides it’s best to die abroad. Armed with little more than his toolbox and a change of clothes, he flies to an unnamed country where the fumes of war still hover in the air. He books a room at the sparsely occupied Hotel Silence, and there he comes to understands the depths of other people’s scars while beginning to see his wounds in a new light.

    A celebration of life’s infinite possibilities, of transformations and second chances, Hotel Silence is a rousing story of a man, a community, and a path toward regeneration from the depths of despair.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrove Press, Black Cat
    Release dateFeb 2, 2018
    ISBN9780802165596
    Unavailable
    Hotel Silence
    Author

    Audur Ava Olafsdottir

    Audur Ava Olafsdottir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1958. She studied art history and art theory in Paris and is a lecturer in history of art at the University of Iceland and a director of the University of Iceland Art Collection. She has curated art exhibitions in Iceland and abroad, including the Venice Biennale, and written about art and art history in various media. Audur Ava is the author of three novels, a book of poetry, and a play. The first novel, Raised Earth, was published in Iceland in 1998. Rain in November was published to rave reviews in 2004 and received the City of Reykjavik Literary Award. The Greenhouse, published in 2007 and forthcoming in English from AmazonCrossing, won the DV Culture Award for literature and a women’s literary prize in Iceland and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Award. Since The Greenhouse was published in France in the autumn of 2010 under the title of Rosa Candida, the book has attracted a great deal of coverage in the French media and received unanimously good reviews. In September 2010, it received the Prix de Page literary award as the best European novel of 2010. The Prix de Page award is determined by a group of 771 bookstores in France where the book was on the bestseller’s list for five consecutive months. The novel was also nominated for three other literary awards in France, including the prestigious Femina award. In January The Greenhouse was shortlisted for the Canadian 2011 Prix des libraires du Québec award. Audur Ava Olafsdottir published The Hymn of Glitter, a book of poetry, in 2010, and her first play will premiere at the National Theatre of Iceland in September 2011. Audur Ava Olafsdottir’s middle name, Ava, was adopted a few years ago as a tribute to the blind medieval French saint, Ava. Audur Ava Olafsdottir lives and works in Reykjavik.

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    Reviews for Hotel Silence

    3.5/5

    54 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      ‘’Will the world miss me? No. Will the world be any poorer without me? No. Will the world survive without me? Yes. Is the world a better place now than when I came into it? No. What have I done to improve it? Nothing.’’ When we need to place a name next to the word ‘’pessimism’’, Jonas’ will be ideal. Our main protagonist stands on a crossroads, the most crucial in his life. His marriage is broken, shadows are cast over the paternity of his beloved daughter and he feels there is no purpose left in his course on this planet. So, he decides to put an end. Permanently. To kill himself. Observing the people who marked his life for what he intends to be the last time, he decides to travel abroad to lessen the pain for his child.The story is set in Iceland, a place of immense, wild beauty, a land of darkness and mystery. Jonas’ mood matches the melancholic nature. A nature that hides flames inside, a country of volcanoes, of fire and ice. And Jonas is like a volcano about to erupt while the series of disappointments from his own family have turned him into ice. Instead of fighting, he gets tired and tries to find the best way for his ‘’exit’’.I read page after page waiting for Jonas’ end. I was hooked. At first, you may think that not much happens but this depends on what each reader considers as ‘’happens’’. There is not an emphasis on ‘’action’’, but on Jonas’ mental state, the state of depression that has covered his life. Reading his thoughts was an adventure in itself and Olafsdottir manages to create anticipation out of everyday interactions.‘’Do you think you can glue back together a broken world?’’ Jonas finds himself a guest in ‘Hotel Silence’, a dilapidated hotel in a country torn and bled by war. It remains unnamed but the descriptions of the natural environment and the emphasis on a recent conflict brings many places to mind. The Balkans, the Eastern Europe, Israel, it could be anywhere and it doesn’t matter. Whatever the writer’s inspiration may have been, the setting is extremely vivid. The city is devastated, the people full of wounds that are impossible to heal, struggling to leave the past behind and rebuild their lives. Jonas becomes a part of this community.‘’And if there was silence, you knew that it would all start again tomorrow.’’Mae, the young woman who runs the hotel along with her brother, is an astonishing character, the jewel of the book. Having survived a Hell on Earth, she shows Jonas that there is always something to fight form even if the tunnel seems to have no end. Mae speaks in some of the most beautiful, heartfelt quotes and provides hope and light in a dark world. The rest of the character are vivid, well-drawn and quirky enough to enjoy.The writing is extremely interesting. There is the distinctive, minimalistic Nordic tone that never becomes dry, but contains worlds within a few short sentences, even though this is a translation.The dialogue is well-structured, the voice of Jonas is clear and complex. There are many bookish reference centred around troubled writers. In fact, books are everywhere in the story. Novels, poetry, Non Fiction. I found ‘’ Hotel Silence’’ to be much more bookish and literary than other novels which wished to be advertised as such and ended up being devoid of any significant reference. Yes, ‘Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore’’ , I am looking at you and your big, stinking pile of nothing… There are also references to the singers’ curse of ‘’27’’ and emphasis on tattoos and scars, whatever consists a tortured soul.The ending, though...It was...I don’t even know how I feel about it...It causes questions and interpretations. You’ll have to read it to understand what I mean. It was unexpected and fitting to the tone of the story, but I can’t say that it was wholly satisfying on a personal level. In my opinion, it leaves room for a second book which I would be more than happy to read.‘’Hotel Silence’’ is a special book. If you have an issue with so-called depressing themes, then you may find it difficult to read. However, life is full of difficult subjects and to avoid them means to live inside a pink bubble, but that’s just me. It’s special and demanding, in tone, in themes, in images and characters. It is a work that showcases -once again- why Nordic Literature is arguably the most interesting in our literary world.Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.
    • 5/5
      A sad book though not without hope about the journey of a middleaged man from a disillusioned negation of life back to a quiet reengaging, very human.
    • 4/5
      This is very different from my usual reads. It tells the story of Jónas Ebeneser, a 49 yr. old man who has (in his eyes) lost everything. The last straw was learning from his ex-wife that he’s not the father of his adult daughter. Now living in a tiny flat, he calmly decides there is no reason for him to go on living. He’s always been a quiet, insular man. After selling his business, his only job these days is visiting his elderly mother. “I don’t know who I am. I’m nothing & I own nothing”. As Jónas considers his options he concludes it would be better for him to end things in a foreign country. This is the first part of the book & there’s a dreamy, almost surreal feel to it. The prose is poetic & non-linear as Jónas reminisces about his life & the people who have crossed his path. Despite how it may sound, there’s not a drop of self-pity or drama in Jónas’ character. He’s simply reached a point where he has no purpose.The second part of the story moves to a small village in an unnamed country that is slowly rebuilding after a long war. Jónas takes a room at the Hotel Silence which is decidedly worse for wear. It’s run by a young sister & brother who are determined to bring it back to its former glory. After he makes some small repairs to his own room, he becomes the hotel’s resident handyman. Word spreads quickly & it’s not long before other villagers come knocking. This section is much more earthbound. As Jónas strolls the safe areas & meets the people, we see firsthand the physical & emotional tolls of war. A man who lived a comfortable if basic life & wants to die is suddenly surrounded by those who have nothing & fight to live. Their stories are poignant & their courage, humbling. And through no effort of his own he forms relationships. With each job, you get the sense he’s also repairing himself as he begins to feel needed & useful again. This is a book that will appeal to fans of literary fiction, especially if you enjoy that indefinable Scandi vibe. It’s a quiet, introspective read with several running themes. Loss, isolation, self worth, survival, love….all of these are explored through analogy & symbolism. Quotes from well know poets & philosophers take the place of chapter headers. It’s a strange, quirky & ultimately hopeful story about mending what is broken, whether it’s a chair or a human being. I found it an oddly peaceful, almost mesmerizing read. And in a world where people walk around with faces glued to phones & spend more time in the virtual world, its themes are hauntingly relevant.
    • 2/5
      Not a big fan of this one. The characters all sound alike, as if they were trying too hard to be poets; the country that the protagonist moves to and where Hotel Silence is situated is never named though I don't know why; and there's far too much on Jonas's past - and all the women he slept with in his youth - and nothing that drives the story forward.